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              event. Workshop and registra-tion
materials can be found at
www.dnr.state.il.us/lands/land
mgt/bow.
Wingshooting
clinics
DNR and participating part-ners
sponsor wingshooting
clinics at sites throughout Illinois
to help improve the shooting
skills of participants. Youth/
Women’s clinics are designed to
teach participants basic firearm
and hunter safety and the funda-mentals
of wingshooting. Hunter
clinics are designed to enhance
the wingshooting skills of
hunters and provide sound wing-shooting
practice techniques.
For a complete schedule, visit
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/land
mgt/programs/wingshooting/
wingshootinghome.htm.
Upcoming clinics include:
Youth/Women Wingshoot-ing
Clinics
  Aug. 20-21—Raycraft Farm
(Piatt Co.), (217) 935-6860
  Aug. 20-21—Shabbona Lake
SRA (DeKalb Co.), (815) 758-
2773
  Sept. 10-11—Forbes State
Park (Marion Co.), (618) 547-
3381
  Sept. 17—Johnson-Sauk
Trail State Park (Henry Co.),
(309) 853-5589
  Sept. 25—Decatur Gun Club
(Macon Co.), (217) 855-1027
Hunter Wingshooting Clinics
  Aug. 27-28—Decatur Gun
Club (Macon Co.), (217) 877-
0400
  Sept. 17-18—Des Plaines
SFWA (Will Co.), (217) 785-
8129
Boat access areas
at Sahara Woods
The Department of Natural
Resources announced the
opening of two new boat access
areas at the Sahara Woods State
Fish and Wildlife Area, provid-ing
new fishing opportunities at
the Saline County site.
Anglers may use new boat
access areas at the 100-acre
Sahara Lake and the smaller 20-
acre fishing lake at Sahara
Woods. The ADA-accessible
boat access area projects
include parking lots, concrete
boat ramps, courtesy boat
docks, security lighting, side-in
Duck Breeding Populations,
which can be downloaded from
www.fws.gov/migratorybirds.
Chicago River
awards
The Friends of the Chicago
River, an organization dedi-cated
to providing public river
access and community revital-ization
through healthy river
stewardship, recently recog-nized
five outstanding groups
who’ve made significant
contributions to an improved
Chicago River watershed.
Recipients of the 2011
awards include: the South Subur-ban
Mayors and Managers Asso-ciation,
which developed the
Lake Riverdale Sustainable Mas-ter
Plan, a project to identify
opportunities for sustainable
development, enhanced open
space and improved storm-water
management in the 2,700 acre
study area; Riverbank Neigh-bors,
for restoration and remod-eling
of a four-block section of
the North Shore Channel south
of Montrose Avenue, including
public access, natural erosion
control and improved wildlife
habitat; Loyola Academy Munz
Campus, which converted a for-mer
landfill into a living class-room
featuring an 8-acre prairie,
wetlands and forest habitat;
Friends of the Forest Preserves,
for its work to restore Harms
Woods habitats including wet-lands
and ponds, stream banks,
invasive species removal and
native plant and animal habitat
improvement; Chicago Park Dis-trict,
for improvements at Ping
Tom Park, a former rail yard in
Chinatown, where a meander-ing
nature trail will connect to a
future continuous river trail lead-ing
to the Loop, plus wildlife
and fish habitat.
Endangered
species update
Anew document “Endan-gered
and Threatened
Species of Illinois: Status and
Distribution, Volume 4–2009
and 2010 Changes” is posted
under the “Publications” link
at www.dnr.state.il.us/espb/
publications.html.
The list of endangered and
threatened species in Illinois
has been updated to reflect the
addition of the northern riffle
shell mussel (Epioblasma
rangiana), which is federally
endangered. A species account
for the northern riffle shell is
included in the document men-tioned
above.
The Department of Natural
Resources and the Endangered
Species Protection Board work
together on endangered and
threatened species recovery
planning, and while the ESPB
may assist, the DNR is the lead
agency responsible for imple-menting
recovery actions.
Available for download at
www.dnr.state.il.us/espb/
index.htm are all approved
recovery plans—eastern wood
rat (Neotoma floridana),
greater prairie chicken (Tym-panuchus
cupido) and barn
owl (Tyto alba). Additional
recovery plans will be posted
as they become available.
Ecology of beavers
document
“Population Ecology of
Beavers in Illinois” is
available at www.dnr.state.il.
us/orc/wildlife (under Publica-tions
and Info). Authors
Thomas Nelson and Clayton
Nielsen share findings of stud-ies
conducted in the east-cen-tral
and southern parts of the
state from 1999-2008.
Beavers were common in
Illinois when the first Euro-peans
settled here. By 1850,
beavers were rare because of
unregulated trapping, habitat
loss and harvest for food. Con-
Visit Conservation
World
Make plans to visit Conser-vation
World during the
Illinois State Fair, Aug. 12-21 in
Springfield. Youth can try to
catch a fish or practice their
skills at the archery and BB
gun ranges. Follow the mean-dering
trails to explore out-door
Illinois—from parks, min-ing
and forests to wildlife, fish
and endangered plants and ani-mals.
You’ll find plenty of free
activities, along with a shady
place to sit on a park bench
and relax while visiting the
state fairgrounds. Conservation
World is open from 10 a.m.-7
p.m. each day.
To view a sampling of activi-ties
available at Conservation
World, visit www.dnr.illinois.
gov/ConservationWorld.
Becoming an
Outdoors-Woman
workshop
DNR invites women to regis-ter
for the next Becoming
an Outdoors-Woman work-shop,
Sept. 23-25 at Pere Mar-quette
State Park, Grafton.
BOW workshops are designed
to provide introductory instruc-tion
in many outdoor-related
activities. Classes are taught in
a non-competitive and non-threatening
environment by
experienced instructors. The
cost is $150 per person, which
includes classes, meals, lodging
and transportation during the
What is it?
The first e-mail response
correctly identifying
the use for this 1943 item
issued by the Department
of Conservation will
receive a free one-year
subscription or renewal
to OutdoorIllinois magazine.
Send your responses to dnr.editor@
illinois.gov. Look for the answer in
the September magazine.
KeepYour Eye on Every
Issue of .
Soar through current information on hunting, camping and fishing and
learn more about Illinois’ natural and cultural resources.
Please sign me up for my subscription today.
 3Yrs (36 is.)–$41  2Yrs (24 is.)–$28  1Yr (12 is.)–$15  New  Renewal
Name: ______________________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________________
City: ___________________ State: ______ ZIP Code:_______________
Daytime phone: ( ____ )___________ Email: _________________________
 MC  VISA Exp. Date: __________________________________
Card Number: _______________________________________________
Signature: (for charge orders)______________________________________
Make check or money order payable to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and mail to
the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 19225, Dept. NL, Springfield, IL 62794-9225; or
order toll-free within Illinois by calling Allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery 1-800-720-3249.
􀀀
22 / OutdoorIllinois August 2011
Fish status reports
Fish species status reports
for 2011 from the DNR
Division of Fisheries—on
muskie, black bass, north-ern
pike, walleye and
sauger, and striped bass
and hybrids—are available
online on the www.ifish
illinois.org Web site.
walks, restrooms and informa-tion
kiosks.
Sahara Woods is a former
mine site that was donated to
the state by the Sahara Coal
Company. Mined land reclama-tion
efforts at Sahara Woods
have been directed by the DNR
Office of Mines and Minerals,
and some areas remain off-limits
to site visitors as reclamation
work continues.
For more information about
Sahara Woods SFWA, call (618)
276-4405.
Duck population
estimates
Improved conditions in much
of the waterfowl breeding
habitat in Canada and the prairies
of the north-central United States
have contributed to higher popu-lations
of many species of ducks,
according to the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
The preliminary estimate of
the total duck population from
the traditional survey area
(north-central United States,
south-central and northern Cana-da,
and Alaska) was 45.6 million
birds. This estimate represents
an 11 percent increase over last
year’s estimate of 40.8 million
birds and is 35 percent above
the long-term average (the total
duck estimate excludes scoters,
eiders, long-tailed ducks, mer-gansers
and wood ducks).
The surveys are summarized
in the 2011 Report on Trends
servation efforts helped their
numbers rebound over the
course of the next century.
Field Trip Packs
for loan
The Department of Natural
Resources’ Division of Edu-cation
has developed a new
educator resource, and it’s
arriving just in time for the
2011-2012 school year. Field
Trip Packs are available for loan
statewide to educators of chil-dren
grades pre-kindergarten
through third. Each pack is a
backpack that contains hands-on
equipment and other
resources to encourage young
children to engage in nature
exploration. Suggestions for
educators on how to incorpo-rate
natural-resources related
topics into the curriculum also
are included. To see the list of
lending locations and the pack
content list, visit http://dnr.
state.il.us/education/fieldtrip
pack.htm. Borrow a pack today!
August 2011 OutdoorIllinois / 23
Field Trip Pack